snow in flagstaff

Jimmy last saw snow when he was a little over 1 years old so he doesn't remember it.  Of course, at Christmas time kids read so many books that talk about snow that any kid would obsess over it, especially when your mom tells you that we will never have it at out own house (...well, never say never apparently it snowed around here a week ago).  I kept saying that one of these days we could drive 2 hours north to Flagstaff to play in the snow.  He asked about it a lot. Finally, with some motivation from some friends we finally made the trip.  It was Zach's first time as well and I was so glad we finally made the effort to do it.  

We had been given a recommendation for a good sledding spot, but the parking lot there was full so we just drove until the next stop we found.  We had bought a few sleds and bundled up our kids as best we could.

While it sort of seemed like at least one of the five children with us was crying at any point in time, we all managed to have fun and find a few fun hills.

My tough guys.

John and Lucia took a turn, but I don't think it was really her thing.

Will, Michelle, and Liam.

There was plenty of snowball throwing as well

(not that this picture quite captures it, but that is what was happening)

We made (okay we added to) this little snow man

... and then John kicked its head off and made Jimmy cry

(Good luck living that one down Johnny Boy!)

Zach and Jimmy made snow angels.

Fortunately, they did this nearer to the end of our little adventure because this is where Jimmy's pants really got soaked and then his temperament was all down hill from there.

...But he still looks really happy here:

The baby boys mostly stayed bundled in their bjorns with their moms.

(I did take him out for a bit so I could sled some too)

How cute are they?

And we didn't even plan these outfits.

Once the kids all got cold enough they just wanted to leave.  We changed into dry clothes in the car and got nice and cozy.... We love being cozy in our family.  Getting warm after the snow is almost as much fun as the snow.

We headed back to our hotel (very nice and very cheap thanks to Priceline's "Name Your Own Price") for a nice relaxing night of pizza and board games and hanging out.

The next morning while Dad and Gus got to sleep for a bit...

...Jimmy woke up bright and early and wanted breakfast.

Fortunately, we still had a banana and I made him some peanut butter animal cookies.

Very Gourmet!

But we got to eat while we enjoyed the beautiful view out our window.

We played in the snow a bit more around the hotel, but it was pretty icy so we couldn't make a snowman as we had promised Jimmy.  At least we found this one so we could take a picture with it:

And Jimmy really loved when Zach made it snow on him.

Yeah Snow!